A New Year is a clean slate.
But for those less concerned with semantics and social constructs, the journey to self-enhancement can begin at any time. Fortune has always favored the bold in cases of those who soldier on towards greater heights.
While it’s true that, in essence, a New Year is just another day with fireworks and some celebration with no concrete catalyst to self-improvement and realization, it can still rally the spirit of change.
A New Year’s Resolution is a state-of-mind, a reinforcement to mind over matter. What way to start the year than actually going through lengths to make themselves better, stronger, healthier, or wiser? Whatever the case is, a new year is a milestone that can transform whims into action and a man into a true gentleman.
So what kind of resolutions, reflective action, and corrections do men take to become more fantastic versions of themselves? What perilous endeavors await the men who seek to become the best they can be?
All begins with the evaluation of the self.
Table of Contents
Vices for Virtues
Human beings are creatures of indulgence. Any unhealthy obsession or consumption of a product or service is a vice. Humanity has come a long way in creating a broad spectrum of things that can become vices.
When it’s finally time to make a change, evaluate your vices and replace them with virtues. The best way to start is by taking some time to assess your routine and life in general. How do your vices affect your health? Your family? Your friends?
These are some of the things you can start asking yourself.
Commitment to Health
Becoming healthy is more than just a whimsical decision; it’s a commitment to your body that can only work to better a man’s physical and mental health. This is why it’s time to stop taking your body for granted.
By eating a well-balanced diet and subjecting yourself to a light but regular workout regimen, consider your journey to better and healthier living to have begun. Perhaps introduce yourself to a novice-level workout routine and research organic and wholesome diets to snowball into a healthy daily grind.
Take Charge of Life and Be Accountable
Set your mind on something, and when you do, take charge. Life is too short for pointing fingers. So when you do something, give it all that you have. If it fails, try again. If you fail again, evaluate where you fell short and get back at it.
Success rarely comes on the first try. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity team before becoming the greatest player of all time. So when you fall, dust it off, find a way to get better, and try again.
Refine Finances
Finances are complex. But if you take it one step at a time, you may find yourself living a healthier financial life in no time.
The first thing to look into is to clean up your credit report. Raise your credit score by depositing a few hundred dollars and using the credit card as you regularly would. Consistent, timely payments over six months should help you fix that credit score.
Pay off debts, keep track of expenditure, and find ways to save.
Reevaluate Relationships
Spending time with people who don’t appreciate you is moot and unnecessary.
Be it for friends, partners, or even family; it’s of paramount importance to ensure that you surround yourself with people who empower you. If they exhaust their time and go out of their way to make you feel inadequate about your life or choices, do not hesitate and cut them off.
Find solace in the people who cherish you and appreciate your efforts.
Enjoy Literature
A worldly man is the mark of a refined gentleman.
A man who reads books is ushered into a new understanding of the world. Fiction allows you to explore uncharted paradises and dystopias that may broaden your perception of reality through allegories and literary devices. Non-fiction books will seek to enhance aspects of your life as you live them. Leadership, coaching, self-help books, and historical journals are all genres necessary to mold and chisel the leader out of you.
Such is the beauty of literature.
Venture Out for Volunteer Work
Once an adequate amount of time is spent evaluating oneself, you can take this momentum and transfer this energy into making the world a better place.
People often forget about the soup kitchen volunteering plans made every year — and it’s understandable. People have lives to live and jobs to do. But if the willingness comes from an honest and earnest sincerity, a system can be learned that will allow busybodies to attend humanitarian activities with more ease.
Instead of choosing a soup kitchen event at certain times of the year, set a minimum number of volunteer work hours. The recommendable starting point is 100 hours per year, but this, of course, will depend on the volunteer’s availability. Any time spent in service of those in need is noble and appreciated.
When donating or spending time on goodwill, it also helps if you perform your due diligence on the group you’re supporting. Some groups have a record of getting a bit out of control with “operating expenses” and inefficiency. As unfortunate as it is, that’s why you can always do your part in making sure your money or time goes to efficient and optimal use.
Push Your Boundaries
If you feel like you need a change, the best thing to do is try something new. Dare yourself and do things that have challenged you for so long. Ski, skydive, do some rock climbing, paint a picture, try that steak you always wanted to feast on. It’s one thing to see the beauty in the world, and it’s another to experience it — live it.
Be Motivated yet Disciplined
When you’re finally in a place where you think you have done good for yourself and your community, keep the energy going!
Keep yourself engaged with the things that make you inspired, happy, and content. Push yourself towards a life of health and satisfaction by developing a disciplinary lifestyle that maintains all things healthy and addresses excessive and unnecessary things.
Live Without Regrets
Make sure that you live your life according to your goals. Do the things that will allow you to say later in life that you were able to build a good and honest living, that you could spend time with your family, and that you spent your days in this short but beautiful adventure with little to no regrets.
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